


Possibilities: Gli Amanti - Invertiti

by Jaenera_Targaryen



Series: Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi [2]
Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/stay night (Visual Novel), Fate/stay night - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, crashing a wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:47:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28714518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaenera_Targaryen/pseuds/Jaenera_Targaryen
Summary: In a world where Edelfelt claims Sakura, Shinji and Rin are set to be married [RECORD SCRATCH]. Wait, what? SHINJI and Rin? Is that really a thing that will happen?
Relationships: Matou Shinji/Rin Tohsaka (one-sided)
Series: Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2104944
Kudos: 2





	Possibilities: Gli Amanti - Invertiti

Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

**Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi**

**Possibilities: Gli Amanti – Invertiti**

"Anything out of the ordinary here?"

"No, sir." One of the men in the guard station replied, pausing in the act of lifting a coffee mug to his lips. "Just the night breeze blowing through the trees and the buzzing of the crickets over here."

"A cat passed by earlier, though." A woman said from the station to the left, watching a set of small screens linked to several CCTVs covering the compound's perimeter. "Didn't seem in any hurry, but then again, it's a cat. What can you do?"

"Fair enough." The guards' superior said. "What about you, Manuel? Anything?"

"No, sir." The man said, also watching his own set of screens, their CCTVs covering the other half of the compound's perimeter. "Not even animals on my end, unlike Gloria and her cat."

Gloria waved him off, and their superior shook his head. "Carry on." He said, and turning to leave.

Marjatta Edelfelt dropped down through the ceiling from the roof, completely catching the guards by surprise. Bone snapped with a fatal crack as she twisted the first man's head and broke his neck, killing him instantly to keep him from hitting the alarm button. Then she blocked a raised baton, catching Manuel wrist to wrist, before her free hand clenched into a fist and she crushed his throat with a single blow.

Gloria was already raising her shotgun, but Marjatta was still faster, between reinforcement and earth elemental magecraft. The guard fell gurgling as a quick volley of Finn shots blew her face in, and then Marjatta was twisting the lead guard's sidearm out of his hand, before an obsidian shard in her hand slammed into his torso.

A muffled and wet-sounding whump echoed through the guard station, as the lead guard's torso simply blew out in a spray of blood and viscera. Marjatta lifted the dead man's upper half by his empty weapon hand, and then sighing, tossed it aside before hurrying on.

She rarely if ever took missions. Oh, she had a few under her belt, but less so than you'd expect for an Edefelt main line member. Some of the least significant of their branch families even had more missions and accomplishments to their name compared to Marjatta.

But then again, that's what happened when you were a spare. With the main line's heiress – Marjatta's twin sister, Luviagelita – spending most of her time in London neck-deep in the plots, conspiracies, and counter-plots of the Clock Tower, it was only prudent to keep their spare protected as much as possible.

Still…

…Luvia couldn't be everywhere at once, and there were some missions that needed her personal involvement even when she couldn't. And while there were other main line members out there who could substitute, there were only so many of them, so much so that every once in a while, Marjatta had the chance to go out and rip some throats out.

Well, sheltered she might be, but she was still a hyena when all was said and done.

One guard found that out the hard way, caught by Marjatta from behind in a neck lock, fingers stuffed in his mouth to keep him from crying out as Marjatta stabbed him with a twelve-inch dagger a dozen times. He bit down, of course, but between reinforcement and the earth element, he might as well have been biting down on tank armor.

The man's teeth breaking against Marjatta's fingers proved that much, even as she let him go, the guard falling limp on the ground, dead with holes riddling the front of his body, blood spilling out along with bits and pieces of his ruined organs.

"Hey, you!" another guard yelled as he turned a corner and spotted the carnage. "You…!"

Then he fell with a muffled crash, Marjatta throwing her dagger with unerring precision, and leaving it stuck between the man's eyes. Proceeding through the darkened mansion, she then crept up on another guard, and slamming a jewel into his back painted the corridor in front of them with his blood and organs.

Sweeping forward, Marjatta arrived at the master bedroom, and with a quick sweep of its interior through the eyes of a familiar outside, quietly let herself in. "Don't you people ever knock?" Her quarry said, turned away from her as he put on his clothes. "I swear, if I have to…hey, who are…?"

Marjatta hissed out a word in Finnish, and then the man was falling silent, unable to speak as he found himself caught in a glowing field of magic that surrounded his whole body. Unable to move either, he could only stare in shock and terror as Marjatta lifted him up into the air with a simple gesture from her hand.

"Joaquin Navarro," Marjatta said coolly. "Also called Los Angeles' Prince of Crack…normally, I wouldn't lower myself to conversing with the likes of you, but you _are_ a person of some significance. So, I suppose you deserve to know _why_ you must die."

Marjatta paused, and then conjured an illusion of a Hispanic woman. "Recognize her?" she asked. "Jauna Aguinaldo…probably one of the best information traders on the West Coast of the United States…someone we did business with regularly, too."

Marjatta paused again, and narrowed her eyes. "I understand wanting to run a tight ship," she said. "Essentially the reason why you had her killed. But to kill her family too…and the excessively-cruel way they all died…"

The magus tilted her head as she trailed off, and pulling out an agate. "…a quick and merciful death is too good for the likes of you." She finally said. "But a message needs to be sent, and a very visible one, between your impending fate and what your death will unleash."

Then as terror spiked in the drug lord's eyes, Marjatta tossed the agate at his body, and painted the master bedroom with his blood and organs.

_Mission accomplished._

* * *

"Marjatta, we have a problem." Lumikki Edelfelt said over satellite, even as Marjatta's Learjet reached cruising altitude after taking off from a private airfield an hour's drive from LA.

"And that is?" Marjatta asked.

"Rin Tohsaka's getting married." Lumikki replied. "I'll send the details over, but we _cannot_ allow this to happen. Even those of our family who aren't the most…enamored, of eventually welcoming Tohsaka in full into the fold as a proper branch family at long last would rise up in uproar if this wedding goes through. Bastards Tohsaka might be in their eyes, but they're _Edelfelt_ bastards for all that. And even bastards have standards to live up to."

"…Sakura's not going to like this." Marjatta warned. "You know as well as I do that ever since she was old enough to think for herself, she's always wanted and expected to be the one to deal with sister when the times comes, one way or another."

"Agreed," Lumikki said with a nod. "But Sakura isn't available right now, what with her currently seconded to Policies at present. And with that being the case, we're going to need a main line member to deal with this properly."

"All of whom are currently on duty elsewhere?" Marjatta dryly asked.

"Well, in your sister's case, she's on honeymoon with Lord Beckenstein." Lumikki replied. "Let's be polite."

"No disagreement there." Marjatta agreed with a nod.

Lumikki nodded back. "There are a few other main line members who are available," she said. "But they'll never make it to Japan in time. But you can: you're right next to the Pacific, and just across the pond, after all."

"You make it sound so easy." Marjatta remarked. "I'll get it done. Please send the details as soon as possible, though."

"Sending it now."

Marjatta nodded as Lumikki's face vanished from the screen, and then she narrowed her eyes, as data scrolled down at speeds that unreinforced eyes could never catch. It only took a few moments of reading before Marjatta was shaking her head.

It was clear why their family couldn't let this stand.

And it was probably for the best too, that Sakura wasn't involved with this.

She'd probably just walk through the church doors, and shoot the groom dead out of the blue without a word with those dueling pistols of hers. That, or along with her retainer Elisa, just charge in, guns blazing and shooting everyone in the church up left and right.

No, this would require a delicate touch. Maybe even more delicate than Luvia's even.

With that thought in mind, Marjatta called for her aide, and ordered the plane to change course. She needed to get to Japan as soon as possible.

* * *

"…speak up now, or forever hold your peace." Kirei Kotomine said with his usual, faintly-mocking tone of voice as he officiated the wedding of Rin Tohsaka and Shinji Matou.

For such an occasion, the wedding wasn't held inside a church, but in a pavilion set up in a public park, rented and prepared in advance for the occasion. There were plenty of guests too, not just the very small family of the bride and groom, but also friends and associates.

Even that damn Zouken Matou was here.

And it had taken quite a lot to keep Kirei from simply assaulting the walking corpse here and now, and exorcising it once and for all. The veiled dejection and resignation on Rin's face helped: there was no escaping it. In a few moments, she would be married in the eyes of God and the Law to Shinji Matou, heir to the Matou family just as Rin herself was heir to the Tohsaka family.

Surprisingly, for all Rin's internal anguish caused Kirei delight, even he felt some internal…

…displeasure, at having to be the one to bind her to Zouken's spawn, to say nothing of ensuring her future children would be left to Zouken's nonexistent mercies.

God had a twisted sense of humor, it would seem, not that there was anything new about that.

"Then by the power invested in me…"

Kirei broke off as murmurs and then alarmed shouts broke out, bounded fields falling around the pavilion as men and women in body armor and holding weapons burst into the pavilion. They surrounded the place, held the guests at gunpoint, and forming a protective cordon as a blonde woman in dark-colored hunting clothes walked in.

"Ah…just in time, then." She said in accented Japanese as she walked down the aisle. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Marjatta Edelfelt, here to represent my family's interests."

Marjatta paused to give a curt, cavalry-style bow before continuing. "As I understand it," she said. "This wedding is born of an arranged marriage between the bride and the groom."

"That is correct." Kirei said.

"I see." Marjatta said with a nod before narrowing her eyes. "Then as per my authority as representative of the main line of House Edelfelt, I declare the arrangement _void ab initio_ , and this ceremony invalid."

This caused no small amount of uproar from everyone present, especially from the groom.

"JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" Shinji Matou shouted while stomping over to yell in Marjatta's face. "WALKING INTO MINE AND RIN'S WEDDING LIKE THIS, AND GOING…!"

Shinji broke off as Marjatta delicately grabbed him by the neck, and raised him into the air. "As I said," she began. "I am Marjatta Edelfelt, and I am here representing my family's interests, none of which would be served by letting this…farce, continue."

Then noting the approval and _hope_ in Rin Tohsaka's eyes, Marjatta reinforced her arm, and hurled Shinji clean across the pavilion to where the wedding cake towered in the distance. Attendants yelled as they jumped out of the way, Shinji screaming as he plowed through the cake, Rin not even resisting the smile breaking out over her face at the sight.

"With respect," Kirei began with a warning look at an older woman and an old man who were Aoi Tohsaka and Zouken Matou, respectively, based on their appearances matching those in their dossiers. "I fail to see how Edelfelt is in any way interested in this affair."

"A practical demonstration should answer that question then." Marjatta said, before rolling up a sleeve and pumping prana into her crest, causing it to glow visibly over her forearm. Then she held it up in Rin's direction, the younger woman looking at Marjatta with delighted gratitude. "By the bonds of blood signified by the crest of our family, I bid you to submit, Scion Tohsaka."

Rin's crest flashed in sympathy, its core formed by the Edelfelt Crest her grandmother had passed onto Tohsaka at her passing. The magus gritted her teeth at the unexpected pain of her crest compelling her to submit, but she didn't resist.

If it meant getting out of marrying Shinji, she would gladly sell her soul to the devil.

And so she sank to one knee, her crest easing up at her complete submission to the main line of House Edelfelt.

"I believe that answers your question, Father…Kotomine, was it?" Marjatta asked.

"I am indeed Kirei Kotomine, Lady Edelfelt." Kirei said with a nod. "And yes, that answers my question. As you say, the arrangement this ceremony resulted from received no sanction from your family, and as such, is _void ab initio_."

"Preposterous!" Zouken shouted while pounding his cane against the ground. "This is unheard of! Edelfelt has shown no interest before now in acknowledging much less treating Tohsaka as a branch family in full, so why now?"

"You people certainly didn't get involved in mine and Tokiomi's marriage!" Aoi also shouted in support of Zouken's position. "If you didn't get involved back then, what gives you the right to get involved now?"

"We have always had the right to involve ourselves." Marjatta calmly replied. "That cousin Rin's crest responds to mine, proves that much. As for your wedding with Uncle Tokiomi, we saw no reason to go against it. Therefore, even without _de jure_ recognition of the arrangement, we treated it as _fait accompli_. And you are wrong, Magus Matou. We have always had an interest in the Tohsaka branch line of our family, and have treated them as such long before now."

"What?" Zouken hissed.

Marjatta smiled in silence, before turning to Rin. "Cousin Rin and Aunt Aoi will learn soon enough." She said. "For now, though, suffice to say Cousin Rin can do better than marrying the scion of a withered line, their heir at that, and one who has no ability whatsoever to use magic. That much was evident from the moment I placed my hand on him. Surely, you understand, _Magus_ Matou?"

Zouken's response was a feral, inhuman snarl of frustrated wrath, before his opaque, black eyes turned to Kirei. The priest had set his Bible aside, and had moved discreetly to an out-of-the-way spot…

…at least, relative to Marjatta and Rin. From where Kirei was standing _now_ , he could strike at Zouken in a heartbeat. That much was clear from the look in the priest's eyes, the set of his face and body, and that smug smile that Zouken wanted to rip from the priest's face. They all said the same thing.

_Yes, please, do something to give me an excuse to put you down once and for all._

Potentially faced with an Executor under the sky in the Sun, and with Edelfelt and Tohsaka almost certain to join the battle against him…

…the odds were overwhelmingly against Zouken, and he knew it.

How it made the worms seethe with frustration.

" _There will be a reckoning._ " He promised instead in archaic Russian, and smiled cruelly as Marjatta gave him a sharp look.

She kept her eyes on him even as the old man turned away, hobbling his way off, and then after a few moments, Marjatta turned back to Rin, the younger woman still on one knee, looking up at Marjatta with masked awe. Marjatta smiled and held out a hand.

"Come, cousin." She said. "It is time to go home."

Rin didn't hesitate. She took the hand, and let Marjatta lift her up to her feet.

"I'd like that."

* * *

A/N

Gli Amanti – Invertiti: The Lovers (Inverted). It is the sixth card of the Major Arcana, traditionally depicted with a nude man and woman standing in the Garden of Eden, before the Trees of Life and the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Inverted, though, the card's associations include broken relationships, separation, and even infidelity.

And in quite a twist of fate, it works out well for Rin here, Marjatta keeping her from having to marry Shinji, and saving her from a lifetime of marital rape. That, and having to stand by and do nothing when her future children inevitably get taken away by Zouken to be raped and tortured by worms.

It should be noted, that this one-shot (potential spin-off seed) takes place in a timeline where the Fifth Holy Grail War didn't break out when it normally does. That, and the _dramatis personae_ (re: main characters) are all in their 20s.

Void ab initio: it literally means void from the start. Usually, this is a legal term used against supposedly-binding contracts which were signed despite being against the law at the time. Naturally, this makes them not binding at all.

 _Special_ thanks to Cubia from SpaceBattles, because this one-shot resulted from a tangent in our discussions on the ideas behind Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi.


End file.
